With winter coming in I am always looking for ways I can spend time with Little C that still allows her to get exercise without freezing my tail off.  I am a mom…hear me whimper in the cold. Now there are always the regular things like riding a bike, going for walks, and going to the park, except that can get boring quickly-especially if you live somewhere where the temperature falls below 50…which is pretty much everywhere but the way way south.

Enter Bounce Houses Now.

What to be your kids hero? Enact some exercise year round in your own yard? Make your house the coolest place on the block? Charge admission to all the neighborhood kids?

Kidding.

When we  received the Obstacle Racer Bounce House from Bounce Houses Now it came in a white box that had no pictures on it. C is quick though. She recognized it as something that could potentially be hers.

“Mommy…what’s in the box?”

“It’s a bounce house”

silence.

“CAN WE OPEN IT? LETS OPEN IT! CAN WE OPEN IT NOW???”

And so we did.

C turns into the worlds most helpful child when its something that will benefit her. Its like selective cleaning. So Big C towed it outside, to the front of the house so all the neighbors could see of course, and pulled it out.

SET UP:

Compared to the Shark Park Bounce house and water slide combo we own, this one had more technological upgrades that made it all around a better bounce house. While we loved the Shark Park, we are in love with the Obstacle Racer. The first change that was noticeable to me comparatively was the blower. The blower had a handle on it, which made transition around the yard much easier and less bulky. Second was that the yellow tube that inflates the bounce house had a strap that fed into the blower. Our last bounce house had a string you tightened. While they both work just fine, having the strap makes it a quicker and more precise process.

This obstacle course also had safety handles and Velcro that made it safe on the slide:

(Charlotte helping out)

Features:

• Two Tunnels
• Two Push Throughs
• Two Climbing Walls
• Two Slides
• Includes – Blower, Stakes, Carrying Case and Patch Kit
• Unit Weight without Blower – 65 lbs
• Number of Bouncers – 1-4 Kids
• Weight Capacity – 400 lbs
• Indoor and Outdoor Use
• Not for Commercial Use

Problems:

The only issue we had with it isn’t something that was related to the bounce houses usage. When you take down a bounce house its not so easy to get it back into a box or bag. It certainly doesn’t fold as nicely as it does from the manufacturer. The bounce house comes with a special bag but so far we are just adding it back into the box it came shipped in and sliding it in our storage area.

Make sure you have a garage space or storage to put when you are done.

Worth Noting:

It came with patches for every color. As you can see its splashed with some beautiful bright colors, and it comes with patches for every area “just in case”.

Once we had it up:

Charlotte insisted on racing.

Because it has two obstacle areas, its a great chance for your kids to race, parents to relay, neighborhood kids to come over and Live. It. Up. Charlotte loves racing as long as she is winning.

She will trip you up and throw you into the wall to win.

I have no idea where she gets that from.

Although its worth mentioning that the bounce house has a max weight of 400 pounds (they say 100 pounds per person), it held Chris, myself, and Charlotte just fine with no problems.

We bounced, raced, ran, and fell over.

[learn_more caption="About Bounce Houses Now" state="open"]Bounce Houses Now features one of the largest online catalog of Inflatable Bounce Houses, Bouncer Slide Combos, Water Slides, Inflatable Slides, Inflatable Obstacle Courses, Inflatable Games, Toddler Bouncers, and Inflatable Accessories. We have carefully selected the manufactures we sell on our site to ensure that our customers receive the highest quality products in the market place. We feature the entire product lines from Blast Zone Inflatables, KidWise Outdoors, Ninja Jump, Magic Jump and Island Hopper. [/learn_more]

If you head to their site, can check out the rest of the different and amazing kinds of bounce house for sale (also their swing sets for sale) and get ready to have some WINTER exercise all season long. Just like i mentioned on our summer giveaway, a bounce house isn’t just fun for a short time, its great for parties, holidays, neighborhood meetings, families large or small, and just to give the gift of adventure.

Every Christmas you give your kids a “big” gift…consider being the coolest parent ever this year by gifting them a bounce house that will keep them giggling (see child above or below) all year long.

[box type="bio"]KidWise has awarded BounceHousesNow.com and BuySwingSets.com with the Platinum Dealer Award. This is the highest level awarded to any KidWise dealer for superior customer service and sales. Buy with confidence.[/box]

WIN ONE HERE NOW

(giveaway close and winner picked November 29th, 2010)

Would you like to win this exact Obstacle Racer Bounce House from Bounce Houses Now which retails for $549?

Of course you do! We have been fortunate enough through the generosity of Bounce Houses Now to give one away to a lucky winner this past weekend on Brandcation, receive one for my family to test, and now to offer one for my blog visitors.

To enter:

Required Entry: We want to know which bounce house or bounce house/slide combo is your favorite on Bounce House Nows website!

Additional Entries:

Twitter and Facebook:

• After completing your initial entry, you can gain additional entries by tweeting this giveaway  (@MomDot @BounceHouses) or sharing with your facebook followers. Every time you tweet or share, you will gain one entry up to ONE per day per social site. (that means you cannot spam your followers 02384029340283 times a day..thats not cool).
• MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE
• Just come back here and leave a note in the comments with your tweet or face book message.

Blogging

• You may blog about this giveaway, including links to the company and to this giveaway, for a total of 5 entries..just leave your link in separate comments so they each get counted. We apprieciate bloggers because it helps wonderful companies like this get known by parents that are looking for Bounce House products.

Subscribing

• See my graphic below…if you subscribe or are already receiving my feed in your box or reader, you gain an entry for being so loyal! Please note that I DO check so if I pull your name and dont see your email that you left here, I will redraw. Don’t lie.

If you want to enter once or 1000 times, that’s up to you! Winner will be pulled by the choose the winner plugin on or about November the 26th. Winner will be notified via email (I also try to tweet you if you win by a tweet entry or facebook you if you win by a facebook entry) and have 72 hours to claim their prize before it is redrawn. I reserve the right to end the contest early or late if I need to do so. Also, your comment may hit spam before it publishes. If you dont see it, no need to re-enter. I will check and pull them all out each day. You wont lose your spot.

US shipping only.

Questions? Email me at trisha (at)momdot(dot)com. Products for this post were provided by Bounce Houses Now.

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Winner was chosen by an autoplugin called And the Winner Is. And the Winner is chose:

Winner will be notified by email and has appropriate time to claim before a new winner is drawn. Thank you all for your entries.